Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

US companies alarmed by Russia sanctions bill

The Hill

American companies are worried that human-rights legislation being linked to a must-pass Russian trade bill could wind up sanctioning them and their business interests.

On Tuesday, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and sister group USA Engage publicly came out against the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which will be marked up in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday and is moving in the Senate.

The groups said that, in addition to hurting U.S.-Russian relations, the bill would expose American companies to the risk of having their assets frozen.

The bill was drafted in response to the death, in prison, of Russian whistleblower Magnitsky.

Congressional sponsors want the bill linked with or incorporated into another bill granting Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status, something the United States wants to do by August, when Russia is to join the World Trade Organization. Unless trade relations are normalized by then, U.S. exports to Russia would face higher tariffs than those from other nations.

The sanctions proposal has businesses balancing the possibility of heightened Russian trade barriers against the risk of being ensnared in a new U.S. sanctions regime.

As drafted, the sanctions bill goes beyond punishing the alleged killers of Magnitsky. It would set up a public list of persons responsible for “gross human-rights violations.” Persons, or “entities,” on the list would be denied visas to the United States or have their assets frozen.

The NFTC said the bill “would include subsidiaries of foreign companies incorporated in the United States whose parent’s conduct anywhere in the world would cause them to be sanctioned based on an opaque and unspecified process.”